Sinkovic and Stone win at Silverskiff

A record of 550 entries lined up for the 11km race in singles on the River Po.  Of these rowers over half were from outside of Italy, coming from 18 nations including, Switzerland, Spain, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Croatia, Russia, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, Iran, Germany, Czech Republic,  Portugal, Mexico, Canada and the Netherlands.  For Iran, Canada and Mexico it was the first time these nations had entered the regatta.

Foreigners dominated the top positions with Croatia’s Martin Sinkovic finishing first in a time just 15 seconds outside of the course record that was set by Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand.  Sinkovic is the reigning World Champion in the men’s double sculls. Behind Sinkovic was Pedro Fraga of Portugal who is the current European Champion in the lightweight men’s single sculls, with Michal Plocek of the Czech Republic in third. Plocek is the reigning under-23 Champion in the men’s single sculls. Fraga’s position also gave him first place among the lightweights with Plocek the first under-23 to finish.

In fourth place was the first Italian home, Francesco Pegoraro and the first junior to finish was Tim Ole Naske of Germany who also finished in eighth overall position.

Directly from racing in the Gold Cup Challenge in Philadelphia was the women’s overall winner, Genevra Stone of the United States. Stone is the top American single sculler and she finished ahead of Russia’s top woman single sculler, Julia Levina. Third place went to Anja Noske of Germany, with Lena Mueller of Germany in fourth. Noske and Mueller make up Germany’s lightweight women’s double combination on the national team. Mueller was the women’s winner of the last two Silverskiffs.  This year’s World Champion in the lightweight women’s single sculls, Eveline Peleman of Belgium won the under-23 category was the fifth woman home overall.

The Silverskiff has the added bonus of the men’s and women’s winner receiving gold coins that are valued at 800 Euros with second getting gold coins worth 400 Euros and third place winning 300 Euros of gold coins.

Next year’s Silverskiff will take place7-8 November 2015.

For full results: www.silverskiff.org.